Three held with 107 kg marijuana; were waiting for lockdown to end

One of their alleged suppliers, identified as Nur Islam alias Dada from Bangladesh, was arrested by a police team on Wednesday from Delhi Cantonment area.

The police on Tuesday arrested two men allegedly in possession of 107 kilograms of marijuana (ganja), estimated to be valued at least ₹50 lakh, from a housekeeping shop in Udyog Vihar. One of their suppliers, a Bangladeshi national, was arrested from Delhi on Wednesday.

According to the police, the gang was active in Delhi-NCR and its members allegedly sold smaller consignments of 10 kilograms each to drug peddlers for potential sale to people. (HT Archives. Representative image)

According to the police, the gang was active in Delhi-NCR and its members allegedly sold smaller consignments of 10 kilograms each to drug peddlers for potential sale to people.

The police said the crime branch of Sikanderpur had received a tip that the men had been hiding in a housekeeping shop in Udyog Vihar, following which the police raided the premises and arrested Rajan Kumar, 34, from Samastipur (Bihar) and Abhishek Kumar, 19, from West Champaran (Bihar).

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said that during questioning, the men revealed that they had sourced the marijuana in a mini truck from two suppliers in Delhi on March 18, a few days before the nationwide lockdown was announced to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

“They had been peddling drugs for over two months. They planned to wait for the lockdown to end and then supply the consignment to several suppliers in the city. Due to frequent police patrols, their movement within the city had been restricted,” the police officer said, adding that several bags packed with the marijuana packets were confiscated from the shop.

One of their alleged suppliers, identified as Nur Islam alias Dada from Bangladesh, was arrested by a police team on Wednesday from Delhi Cantonment area. The police said the main kingpin of the gang, who used to source the narcotics from Odisha, was yet to be arrested.

The men were produced in a district court on Thursday and sent to police custody for one day. A case was registered against them under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Udyog Vihar police station, the police said.

In August 2019, the city police had arrested four men in possession of 54 kilograms of marijuana, while they were trying to peddle the consignment. The marijuana had been procured from Odisha and smuggled into the city in a truck. The police said that they were investigating if this week’s arrests had any link to the supply chain network of the arrests made last year as both consignments had been procured from Odisha.